Apple TV’s top Show Renewed for Record-Setting Season, But A Game of Thrones-Sized Problem Is Here
One of the biggest complaints with television in the modern streaming era is twofold: that shows get cancelled too quickly and that the time between episodes is getting longer. The wait is not only killing audience anticipation, but actual total interest in seeing how shows wrap up at all. To that end, any time a show can be at least consistent in the rhythm of new releases, it’s something worthy of praise, even if it’s how television worked for decades beforehand. There’s probably no more consistent show in the streaming era than Apple TV‘s Slow Horses, and they’ve just confirmed they’re coming back for more.
On the heels of the premiere of Season 6 of Slow Horses, Apple TV has done the unthinkable for streaming TV series in the 2020s: they’ve announced renewal, but not for Season 7…Slow Horses has been renewed for Season 8. As noted, Season 6 of the show hasn’t even premiered yet, and Season 7 of the series has already been shot ahead of a premiere next year. Now, Apple TV has announced that See-Saw Films’ adaptation of Mick Herron’s books is gearing up for another season. Though the eighth season officially makes Slow Horses the longest-running show in Apple TV’s brief history as a streamer, there’s a problem lingering: the end of the road.
Slow Horses Renewed for Season 8
In a press release, Apple TV has confirmed that Slow Horses‘ new season has officially been ordered with director Adam Randall, who directed all of Seasons 4 and the upcoming Season 6, returning to helm every episode. The press release has also confirmed that Slow Horses Season 8 will officially be based on the ninth novel in Mick Herron’s Slough House book series, Clown Town, which was released just last year. Which leads us to the big problem: There’s nothing left.
To date, Slow Horses has been chugging along, adapting books from Herron’s series one at a time, but the upcoming sixth season actually weaves two of the books together, bringing both Joe County and Slough House to life in one season. With Season 7 set to adapt the Bad Actors book and now Season 8 confirmed to adapt Clown Town, we’ve arrived at the end of the book series, the same place that Game of Thrones got to previously.
Though there are no Slow Horses books left to adapt after Clown Town, there are a handful of novellas and spinoff titles that could, in theory, become the basis for storylines in the TV show. That said, the fact that this season won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest means that Herron certainly has time to pen another book in the series and give the show something else for another potential season. To date, the author has given no indication of when the book series might actually end, so it remains to be seen how the TV series itself will continue without new stories lined up.
“‘Slow Horses’ continues to charm audiences all around the world and I’m delighted that Jackson Lamb and his gang of lovable misfits will be back for an eighth season,” said Jay Hunt, creative director, International, Apple TV. “Their acerbic take on the high-octane world of espionage is completely unique.”
Star and executive producer Gary Oldman has been very clear in the press about how much he adores playing the slovenly, washed-up spy that is Jackson Lamb, alongside his love for the books themselves. To that end, it seems unlikely that the show would ever carve out its own future. Luckily, they’ve got time, and Mick Herron is still publishing books, unlike other writers.
